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I personally think that nutrition plays |
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I personally think that nutrition plays a far greater role than ever before. We all expect our cows to give more milk, of better quality, year on year and still get in calf first time. If the cow isn't getting enough quality feed to sustain the milk yield then is it any wonder she doesn't hold to AI.
What were you feeding your cows 10 years ago compared to last year?
With our ever shrinking genetic pool and the over use of "good" bulls to chase desirable traits how does Guernsey in-breeding compare in herds compared to ten years ago?
How many of us actually use the information available re fertility indices and own herd in-breeding?
We haven't run a sweeper bull for seven years now currently 61% of the herd calve below 385 days, the breed average is 38.5%! I know calving interval is little use to Mike as he is in a unique situation but one question to throw open to others is when do you start serving your cows? The best quality eggs are from 45 - 100 days post calving - are people just leaving it too late and then blaming poor semen quality instead of poor egg quality?
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We overhauled our dry cow management and went onto our own made up ration for the milkers 2 and half yrs ago This was mainly to increase BF production cow condition and hopefully improve fertility .The results have been a massive in crease in yield and Fat% cow condition still the same but just had Februarys NMR this morning and rolling 12 mth FERTILITY.....1.5 SERVES PER CONCEPTION,73% TO 1st SERVICE 126 DAYS TO CONCEPTION 402 calving index. about 40 days less than 12 mth ago. 402 calving index is not an issue more important is the ammount of litres at drying off ,we feed for long flat lactations no massive weight loss at calving and sustainable peaks. we have averaged about 19litres at drying off with the last 10 cows with a first calver Chilly Jackie at the momment still doing 21 at 6.52bf and 4.39pr 9120litres in 366 days does it matter she lost 90 days 
due again end of may